Is there a patent for the "Gold Foil" pickups?

[Joe Gwinn]

I'm analyzing a friend's DE Armond Diamond-Grille Gold Foil pickup, and so went patent-hunting by searching the forum and googling more widely. What I've found are 2,455,046 and 2,455,567; while interesting, these are not quite on point. Does anybody know of other patents?

What I have gleaned is that this Gold Foil is a singlecoil with ~8,000 turns of #44 wire wound on a plastic-magnet core, with steel baseplate and chrome-plated brass cover.

The recent Teisco thread had some DeArmond data as well. http://music-electronics-forum.com/t13178/

The gold foil (actually chrome colored) is in fact an insulator, which surprised me. I had thought it would be a very thin but conductive metal coating, like aluminized mylar shielding in cables, to act as an electrostatic shield, but this does not appear to be the case. Only decoration, it seems. I don't recall people complaining that they were noisy, though.

[Possum]

I don't think any of those DeArmond/Rowe simple pickups had patents, they were just too simple. The gold foil version evolved out of the solid top chromed covered version that had an alnico magnet of the same dimensions inside it, they went to rubber probably because its alot cheaper and easily machined to size. I make a repro of the solid top type used on alot of Kay guitars, 44 formvar, fun tones.

[Joe Gwinn]

I don't think any of those DeArmond/Rowe simple pickups had patents, they were just too simple. The gold foil version evolved out of the solid top chromed covered version that had an alnico magnet of the same dimensions inside it, they went to rubber probably because its a lot cheaper and easily machined to size.

Could well be.

I make a repro of the solid top type used on alot of Kay guitars, 44 formvar, fun tones.

Formvar. The pickup I've looked at was rewound, apparently with #44 solderon. I'm guessing that the original was Formvar.

Could you expound on fun tones?

[David Schwab]

I love those old DeArmond-Rowe pickups. They have a great single coil tone without sounding like a Fender.

[Ward]

I made a set of single coils that are basically half a humbucker, they don't sound like a strat either but still real nice and when you get sick of the tone you can just add another bar mag n make em P-90s.

[Sweetfinger]

Quote Originally Posted by Possum View Post
I don't think any of those DeArmond/Rowe simple pickups had patents, they were just too simple. The gold foil version evolved out of the solid top chromed covered version that had an alnico magnet of the same dimensions inside it, they went to rubber probably because its a lot cheaper and easily machined to size.

Could well be.

Dearmond very likely went to rubber magnets so they could use adjustable polepieces. Hard to drill holes in Alnico... cost might have been a factor as well.

[David Schwab]

Dearmond very likely went to rubber magnets so they could use adjustable polepieces. Hard to drill holes in Alnico... cost might have been a factor as well.

Did the poles pass through the magnet? I wouldn't think that would be the case. If you do that you will lose your magnetic strength at the top of the pole because the bottom of the magnet is the opposite pole.

I think they just used the rubber magnets because it was something new, and you can cut them to shape. You can't easily cut a hard ferrite magnet either.

[jason lollar]

some versions did have poles passing through the magnet- i dont think they cared if it was functional or not or if it was detrimental as long as they still got signal.

[Sweetfinger]

The threaded poles go a ways into the magnet but not all the way. The rubber is threaded.

[Joe Gwinn]

The threaded poles go a ways into the magnet but not all the way. The rubber is threaded.

That's how the sample I have is done.

[Joe Gwinn]

The threaded poles go a ways into the magnet but not all the way. The rubber is threaded.

That's how the sample I have is done.

Duplicated because of a race in the 28-second min delay between posts.

[David Schwab]

some versions did have poles passing through the magnet- i dont think they cared if it was functional or not or if it was detrimental as long as they still got signal.

Wow, that's weird.

[jason lollar]

i couldnt remember if they went all the way through or just most of the way through - so how much magnetic strength would you get with maybe 1/16 thick rubberised magnet under the poles? virtually nil. most of the transfer must be coming from the sides of the holes, besides the magnets are .45 wide and the poles are only maybe 3/16 max so you still have magnet throwing more than the pole under each string. i am saying its not working like a typical magnet under the pole piece pickup, i would bet it was a marketing driven decision

[David Schwab]

i would bet it was a marketing driven decision

Yep, like the adjustable poles on the PAF.